Monday, September 14, 2009

One of the best time-saving skills in paper crafting is 'eyeballing' measurements.

I talk about this alot in class and am always intrigued by how horrified most students are when I suggest NOT using a ruler.Sometimes an exact measurement is key to a great project, but often, it's just not that important.

Really, 'eyeballing' is a skill like anything else and one that will get better with practice. Want to try your hand? Let's see just how good your visual guestamations are... just cut and paste these questions to a word document and print (or hand print on a piece of paper) and then try drawing the measurement. Take out a ruler and check to see how well you did.

draw a 1/4" line:draw a 1/2" line:draw a 3/4" line:draw a 1" line:draw a 1 1/2" line:draw a 2" line:draw a 3" line:draw a 4" line:draw a 5" line:draw a 6" line:draw a circle:draw an oval:draw a 1" circle:draw a 2" circle:

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.You'll be amazed at how good you will get at these common paper crafting measurements.I do the same thing in the kitchen. A pinch of this, a tsp of that, a 1/2 cup etc... Now, I wouldn't recommend this kind of 'eyeballing' when you bake. Baking is a science and doesn't do well with guesses, which is why I rarely bake and my husband is SO good at it.

I remember the first time I did Weight Watchers and needed to learn how to 'eyeball' a serving of meat, a cup of cereal, a 1 oz. slice of bread. It's a sad little exercise, but it does help you to get 'real' with food portions.

3
comments:

The only ones I got right were the 1/4" which is the size of the hole in a piece of notebook paper and 1 1/2" which is the width of my favorite belts...anything over that and I'm uncomfortable. Under that, and they look like crap on me...how's that for strange logic!?

I started out as a sewer so I DON'T eyeball anything! I also can't take a pinch of this 1/4 cup of that without measuring...I TRUST NOTHING! That being said, I know you can do it without blinking...which is why you don't have a problem "eyeing" something, and I need another sheet of paper as I did it wrong:) Sad but true.